Main Timeline: 1999

Sometime in 1999

In a deserted part of Nevada, a human body is found with its skull smashed in and with a strange wound on its back. The murder remains unsolved for several months. The body has formerly been occupied by a parasite that is capable of taking complete control of the human body, but which finds many humans unsuitable. (RoadRunners)

In 1999 or earlier, a cult leader calling himself Absalom predicts that an alien invasion will occur at the beginning of what he believes to be the new millennium. He gathers people around him in a compound about an hour's drive from Helena, Montana.(This Is Not Happening)

Monica Reyes has a relationship with another FBI agent, Brad, while they are both in New York. She often asks him to close the door to the room they are in so they can kiss. (Nothing Important Happened Today.)

January 4, 1999

Tithonus. In New York City, a man follows an office worker who is delivering mail to various offices. On an elevator, he sees her and the other passengers in black and white. Leaving the elevator, he runs down stairs to the basement and the elevator malfunctions, free falling down the shaft. The man photographs the bodies.

Agent Scully is assigned to work with agent Payton Ritter, from the New York City office. He has discovered crime scene photographs in which a clock shows a time before the crime was reported to police. There are other similar instances and Ritter believed the photographer, Alfred Fellig, may be committing the crimes. Mulder believes it to be an X-Files, but Scully denies it, and goes off to New York. In New York, Scully determines that Fellig has been a freelance crime scene photographer for many years. His departmental paperwork goes back to 1964, and photographs from the years in between show that Fellig does not appear to have aged. That night, Fellig witnesses a crime in which a mugger tries to steal an expensive pair of shoes from a jogger. The Jogger is killed and when Fellig approaches to take his picture, the mugger returns, stabbing Fellig several times. Fellig pulls out the knife, gets up and walks away.

Police find Fellig's fingerprints on the knife left at the murder scene and call him in for questioning. Under questioning from Scully, Fellig admits he was present and was wounded. He opens his shirt to show the wounds and they are hardly more than scratches. Mulder is intercepting reports Ritter is sending Assistant Director Kersh and offers to do a background check on Fellig for Scully. Meanwhile, Ritter stakes out Fellig's apartment. When Scully takes over for her shift, she realizes that Fellig knows he is being watched. She goes to his door and confronts him. Fellig agrees to explain things to Scully if she will go for a ride in his car. After driving for an hour, Fellig sees a prostitute on the street and tells Scully the woman is about to die, but he doesn't know how. A man approaches the prostitute and begins giving her trouble. Scully runs to arrest him, the prostitute says "I'm out of here," and steps into the street in front of a truck, which kills her. Fellig drives off, leaving Scully at the accident scene.

Ritter doesn't believe Fellig's story and accuses Scully of messing up his case. Mulder reports to Scully that he has found several fingerprints matching Fellig's dating back 149 years. Scully returns to Fellig's home and accuses him of profiting from other people's deaths. Fellig makes clear that he is unable to die and is trying to catch Death in the act of taking people. He shows Scully one photograph in which he thinks he caught a glimpse of Death in physical form. He feels he is left out of something all other people experience because he cannot die. He tells of the Yellow Fever epidemic. He was in a hospital ward and saw Death moving among the beds, but he looked away and Death took a nurse instead. Scully sees one of Fellig's photographs from 1929 with the name Lewis Brady and calls Mulder to check out the name. In the archives, Mulder finds a photograph to show that Lewis was also Fellig, and that he was convicted to killing two people but escaped from prison. Fellig has taken and turned off Scully's cell phone, and now he sees Scully in black and white, indicating the she will soon die.

Mulder cannot reach Scully, so he calls Ritter, who is on his way to Fellig's apartment. From Fellig's comments, Scully realizes that he thinks she is about to die. Scully handcuffs Fellig to a table but Ritter bursts into the room, shooting Fellig. The bullet passes through Fellig and hits Scully. As they both bleed, Fellig tells her to close her eyes and not look at Death. He does look at Death, however, and dies.

One week later, Scully is at New York University Medical Center, recovering from her wound. Ritter is in trouble for shooting Scully. The coroner's report said only that Fellig died of a single gunshot wound. Mulder tells Scully that he doesn't think Fellig would have ever died naturally. (The date for this episode is given as Ritter prepares the tape recorder to record Fellig's police interview.)

Early 1999

S.R. 819. Assistant Director Skinner is at a gym, in a boxing ring with a sparring partner. He becomes disoriented and gets knocked out, waking up in a hospital. While waiting for a doctor, Skinner's cell phone rings and a scrambled voice says, "it's in you -- you have 24 hours -- you are already dead." The doctor, however, releases Skinner, after drawing blood for some tests, because there appears to be nothing wrong except for a bruise on his ribs.

Later that evening at FBI headquarters, Mulder and Skinner talk. Skinner is on a couch in his office and is having trouble seeing and Mulder calls Scully into the office to consult. They wonder if Skinner might have been poisoned. Retracing his day, Skinner remembers a man who bumped into him in the hallway. They identify him as Kenneth Orgel, a physicist who is an advisor to a US Senate committee. Mulder and Skinner go to see Orgel, who denies that he was at the FBI building, but there are several men in black in Orgel's home. After a chase, Mulder catches one. He has Tunesian diplomatic papers, so Skinner orders Mulder to release him. Orgel has disappeared with the other men in black. In his house, Mulder finds papers showing Orgel with Senator Matheson, who has occasionally helped Mulder with tips.

Scully goes to talk with the doctor who saw Skinner, Dr. Platte. The blood tests have not yet been done. They find tiny bits of carbon in Skinner's blood. It is unclear what they are, but they are multiplying. Scully eventually finds that the carbon is creating a matrix and building structures in Skinner's blood. Mulder visits Senator Matheson. Orgel has been working on a bill to provide aid to third world countries via expanded exports, but the Senator declines to help Mulder further with the case. On embassy row, Skinner pulls into a parking garage and his car is fired on by the Tunesian. He and Skinner stalk each other through the garage, but as the Tunesian is about to shoot Skinner, a car races through the garage and runs down the Tunesian, killing him. Skinner collapses.

Scully learns that Skinner is being brought back to the hospital. An emergency room doctor is preparing to remove Skinner's arm. Much of his body is now discolored and mottled. Scully barges in and stops the procedure, because the problem is in his blood. In Skinner's office, Mulder finds that Skinner has been doing a security review on export laws involving new technology. Going to the hospital to inform Scully of his discoveries, Mulder takes a phone call from the synthesized voice, and finds that a man is in the hallway using a handheld data device, a Palm Pilot. Mulder chases the man, who we see to have long hair, escapes, leaving his car on a higher level of the parking garage. Soon after, the long-haired man also calls the Senator.

At the FBI impound lot, the car driven by the long-haired man has been gone over by a forensics expert. It has strands of wig hair in it, and PCB traces on the tires. The PCBs could come from any abandoned power plant. Senator Matheson arrives at an abandoned power plant and finds Orgel tied up and with the same skin mottling that Skinner has. Orgel swears that he told the FBI nothing. The long-haired man is watching, moves a control on his Palm Pilot and Orgel dies. Meanwhile, Scully has an idea to filter Skinner's blood to try to remove the carbon. Skinner tells Scully he is sorry for not helping her and Mulder more; he always played it safe and didn't take sides. All of a sudden, Skinner remembers seeing a man at the gym and at the FBI office -- with long hair.

Mulder arrives at the power plant and finds the Senator's car. Inside, Matheson tells him that Orgel is dead, killed by the conspiracy. What they put in Skinner is nanotechnology -- tiny robots. They wanted S.R. 819 in order to be able to export the nanites and the Senator claims he is not involved. At the hospital, Skinner's heart stops. As a sheet is pulled over Skinner's body, a hand is seen to adjust a remote control, and Skinner revives. It is the long-haired man.

Three weeks later, Skinner's is doing well. Whatever is inside him is dormant and he is back at work. S.R. 819 has been withdrawn. Mulder thinks it is about the X-Files, but Skinner will not authorize further investigation, which Scully finds odd because of Skinner's comments about helping them more. Later, Skinner enters his car in the FBI parking garage. Alex Krycek is waiting for him and it is obvious that it was he wearing the long hair wig. He tells Skinner that he could press the button and kill Skinner at any time. "What's this all about?" asks Skinner. "All in good time," replies Krycek. [There is no clear date reference in this episode. The "early 1999" entry given above is strictly speculation. It could have happened almost any time after the X-Files Movie.]

February 1999?

Two Fathers. (Most of this episode is told as narration by the Cigarette Smoking Man. Who he is talking to is not clear. The episode begins with flashbacks to many past conspiracy arc episodes, laying the groundwork for the current story.)

In a railroad yard in Arlington, Virginia, doctors in biocontainment suits make an incision in a patient's stomach. Green acid boils out and the cut heals itself. Another doctor arrives and is told that after 25 years the work is complete, but a faceless man arrives and sets fire to the medical team. We see that the patient is Cassandra Spender, who has been missing for a year.

The Cigarette Smoking Man discusses the conspiracy for his unseen guest. It is hard to believe that the end is here. It was a perfect conspiracy, preparing the way for the invasion of an alien race and creating a slave race of human-alien hybrids. They kept it secret for 50 years, since Roswell, but a rebel alien race came to upset their plans.

Skinner tells agent Spender that his mother is in the hospital, having survived the attack in the rail car. At the hospital, she does not explain what happened but asks to talk to agent Mulder. Not happy about it, Spender eventually tells Mulder but does not specifically ask for help. Mulder believes that it is a set-up, designed to entrap Mulder and get him out of the FBI completely. Meanwhile, the Smoking Man visits the one doctor who survived the rail car attack. He is in a hyperbaric chamber because of his burns. The doctor says the rebels came to take Cassandra so they can expose the conspiracy. The doctor points out that he must not be questioned, and with regrets, the Smoking Man turns off his oxygen supply. In Silver Spring, Maryland, one of the elders (played by actor George Murdock) is informed by the Smoking Man that an emergency meeting of the Consortium has been called, but a faceless man arrives and burns the elder.

Mulder and Scully realize that they have seen these burned bodies before and that Scully has been kidnapped and subjected to tests in a rail car in the past. They meet with Cassandra in secret at the hospital. Long confined to a wheelchair, she can now walk fine and feels wonderful. She says the woman Mulder saw last year was not his sister. Samantha is with the aliens. The doctors were also working with the aliens who are here to wipe the human race off the planet. They are taking over the universe, infecting all other life forms with a black substance called "purity," which is their life force. Agent Spender is also in danger, because he is allied with the men who are working with the aliens, including her ex-husband, Cassandra says.

The Smoking Man tells his unseen guest that he killed to keep his colleagues from finding Cassandra because he couldn't bring himself to allow the death of his ex-wife, and that his colleagues did not realize that their group had been infiltrated. In the meeting of the consortium, we see the burned elder alive and well. He suggests that the consortium should ally with the rebels but Krycek refutes the suggestion, saying that helping the invaders has provided time to develop a way to fight them, but he gets "shushed" by the Smoking Man. At the FBI, Mulder and Scully use Spender's computer to research Cassandra and agent Spender. They locate a photograph of Cassandra's ex-husband, C.G.B. Spender, and it is the Smoking Man. Skinner warns them to leave the X-Files office, but Spender arrives with other men and Mulder and Scully are put on administrative leave for unauthorized access to the X-Files office.

Spender reports to his father that Mulder has been suspended. They argue and Spender is told "you pale to Fox Mulder." But later, because he has been exposed, the Smoking Man goes back to Spender and assigns him to kill the rebel masquerading as an elder, using an "ice pick" weapon. Krycek drives Spender to the Elder's mansion but Spender bungles the attack and Krycek, who has been serving as back-up, appears and kills the alien. Spender is shocked at evidence of the truth of his mother's claims. Krycek admits that Cassandra has been the subject of experiments for 25 years and that agent Spender has, in effect, been protecting the project that has harmed his mother. Meanwhile, Scully has researched C.G.B. Spender. The name is certainly an alias, but Scully has a box full of information, including a 1973 photograph of C.G.B. and Bill Mulder. They worked together for 25 years on a classified project and it is clear that the project is still going on. We finally learn that the Cigarette Smoking Man has been talking to Diana Fowley. He says she has never failed him and she answers that it's not too late, she will help.

Cassandra is not in her hospital room and her guard is gone. She shows up at Mulder's apartment, scared because "they" are right behind her. As someone else knocks on Mulder's door, Cassandra says she is "the one," and tells Mulder he must kill her. As the pounding on Mulder's door continues, and as Scully says "no, we have to protect her," Mulder draws his gun and aims at Cassandra. To be continued, next week.

February 1999?

One Son. In opening scenes of the episode, we see the Elders on October 13, 1973, in a giant hangar. The hangar doors open and many grey aliens enter. They are presented a folded US flag.

In Mulder's apartment, Mulder has his gun aimed at Cassandra, but the door bursts open and several men dressed in biocontainment suits enter, saying they are with the Centers for Disease Control. Diana Fowley is also there, claiming that they have been infected with an unknown disease. They are taken to Fort Marlene where they go through decontamination procedures. Cassandra is kept separate from Mulder and Scully. Diana tells them that the CDC was called by agent Spender. Scully argues that nobody is infected and wants to see Cassandra. She is suspended from the FBI, however, and cannot see Cassandra. Scully thinks Cassandra has been taken to continue the experiments. Mulder thinks she was taken because "she is the one."

Krycek reports to the Smoking Man that he has recovered all of Cassandra's medical records and concludes that the rebels struck because if the Colonists find out about her, they will begin the colonization. The Smoking Man says maybe we need to let colonization begin -- it's the only way for us to be safe and see our loved ones again. At Fort Marlene, Mulder sneaks through the halls and in a darkened room finds Marita Covarubius. Her hair is in ratty and she is far from her usual elegant appearance. She says if "they" find her with Mulder they will kill her. She has been subjected to terrible tests -- infected with the black oil to test the vaccine. Mulder realizes that the hybrid program was done in cooperation with the aliens, but was just a way of buying time. If the aliens learn that a successful hybrid exists, they will begin the colonization.

Jeffrey and Diana visit Cassandra Spender at Fort Marlene. Jeffrey had her taken into medical isolation to protect her (apparently not realizing what fans know, that Fort Marlene is a stronghold of the Consortium.) Cassandra says if the Consortium gets her, everyone dies. Meanwhile, Mulder is summoned to the office of the Lone Gunmen. Scully has had them research Diana Fowley. She took a position in Europe with the FBI counter-terrorism unit but there are no records of her cases. Other sources show that she spent her time visiting every MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) chapter, showing particular interest in female abduction victims. She also visited Tunisia weekly. Scully thinks she's monitoring the abduction experiments. Mulder says he is not convinced.

Mulder, however, goes to see Diana. She is not home so he picks her lock and searches her apartment, finding nothing incriminating. While he is there, the Smoking Man enters, and Mulder holds him at gunpoint. He came looking for his son, who has chosen the wrong side. Mulder points out that CSM is the one who is experimenting on women without their permission. CSM says Bill Mulder was against it, but came to his senses and gave up Samantha. The Project was approved by majority vote in 1973, and became an organization outside of any government. They voted to cooperate with the aliens and the aliens insisted that they turn over their children and loved ones, including Cassandra. They were sent with the aliens on the promise that they would be returned when the colonization began. The choices, CSM says, were not made lightly. Samantha was abducted from her home because Bill Mulder resisted, but the only way to get the alien fetus was for Samantha to also be taken. The DNA from the alien fetus was the only way to develop a race of hybrids that could survive the holocaust. Bill Mulder's idea was to use the alien DNA to develop a vaccine. "We've succeeded in spite of ourselves," says CSM. Colonization will now begin. A state of emergency will be declared because of the outbreak of the alien virus, delivered by bees. He gives Mulder a slip of paper.

Mulder argues that it has to be stopped or everyone dies. CSM makes clear to Mulder that they will both survive and that Fox can see his sister returned, or die in vain like the rest of the world. He urges Mulder to "save her, save yourself," and leaves the apartment without objection from Mulder. Meanwhile, Jeffrey arrives at the meeting place of the Elders in New York. Only Krycek is there, and he says they have all left for West Virginia where they will be prepared to receive the alien genes and be taken by the Colonists. The doctors enter Cassandra's room to begin her for transportation, injecting her with a drug to immobilize her. CSM is there and he and Cassandra talk privately. She calls him the biggest bastard of all and he does not defend himself, except to say that were it not for his actions everyone would be dead. He ordered the abductions to save her and Jeffrey. She pleads with him to kill her, to stop the colonization, but he cannot.

Mulder is still in Diana Fowley's apartment when she returns. He tells her about his conversation with CSM and says sometimes the only way those you love can survive is for you to give up. He shows her the paper given to him by CSM, that says "El Rico Air Base." Diana has no reaction, other than to kiss and hug him. Meanwhile, Jeffrey finds his mother gone from Fort Marlene. Marita finds him and says they are packing everything up. They are going to leave and not take her, but she tells Spender she knows where they are going and how they will take Cassandra there and she begs him to help her. A doctor enters the room where the original alien fetus is kept in liquid nitrogen, in order to prepare it for transportation. A nurse enters -- she is a rebel and kills the doctor, taking the fetus and assuming the identity of the doctor.

Mulder and Scully talk by phone. He wants to take Scully to West Virginia, presumably to get her included in the group that is saved. She, however, has learned from Spender where Cassandra is, in the Potomac Yards where she will be transported by train. Mulder sends Diana on ahead to West Virginia and goes to meet Scully, because it is their last chance to stop the colonization. The train is already rolling when they get there. Scully, driving, blocks the rails with their car, but the train wrecks the car and continues unstopped. Skinner arrives and Mulder and Scully tell him they must head for El Rico Air Force Base, in West Virginia. In the giant hangar at the air force base, CSM arrives and notes that there are still people missing. The first Elder says they are waiting to send the signal summoning the colonists until everyone has arrived. The rebel arrives with Cassandra.

One person missing is Alex Krycek, who is at Fort Marlene. He discovers the dead doctor and that the alien fetus has been taken by rebels. In the hall, he finds Jeffrey and Marita. They can't get out because the security guards will not recognize Jeffrey's authority to remove a patient. Krycek says it is all going to hell and that the rebels are going to win. Diana arrives at the hangar. An alien ship arrives, but the Elders are puzzled because they have not yet sent the signal. The rebel posing as the doctor presumably called his allies. Rebels rush into the hangar and surround the Elders and their families, but CSM and Diana are to the side and quickly escape as we hear screams from the remaining humans.

Later, back at the FBI, Assistant Director Kersh is horrified at the pictures of the burned victims at El Rico AFB. Skinner is also in the meeting. Spender says he might have prevented the deaths. Agents Mulder and Scully might also have prevented the deaths, he points out, if they had not been suspended. Spender says he was wrong to bring charges against Mulder and Scully, and urges that the two assistant directors do everything they can to get Mulder and Scully back on the X-Files. Kersh asks Mulder if he has answers and Mulder says that he has had answers for years but nobody would listen. The future is here and all bets are off. Later, in the X-Files office, Jeffrey arrives to clean out his things and finds CSM waiting for him, holding the picture of himself and Bill Mulder from 1973. CSM says Bill Mulder was a good man, but he betrayed CSM. Jeffrey says he knows enough about his father to hate him. CSM draws his gun and fires at Jeffrey, then sadly leaves the office.

(This episode leaves many questions, including how much, if any, of the structure of the consortium remains alive. We have clear evidence that the Consortium was made up of many people speaking different languages and apparently from different countries, including Conrad Strughold in Tunisia. They certainly were not all there in West Virginia. Might there have been multiple pickup points around the world? Is Strughold still alive and in control?)

February 24, 1999

Arcadia. Mulder and Scully pose as a married couple moving into "The Falls at Arcadia," a planned community where several couples have disappeared without a trace. Neighbors all deny any knowledge of what might have happened. Mulder and Scully, calling themselves Rob and Laura Petrie, are in the house in which David and Nancy Kline disappeared seven months earlier.

The agents soon discover that there are lots of rules in this community -- they must be moved in by 6 pm under the homeowner's code. Mulder is also told that he cannot have his basketball hoop in the driveway. Many neighbors turn out to help them get unloaded before the deadline. When they leave, the agents begin a forensic analysis of the house. They find what appears to be blood and hair in a ceiling fan that whoever cleaned the house missed. A neighbor, Big Mike, who dropped Scully's box of china (really test equipment) appears at the door to loan them dishes. He is a veterinarian and cautions that residents may only have 16 pounds of pets. As soon as Scully asks about the Klines, Mike rapidly departs.

At the home of the president of the homeowner's association, Gene Gogolak, four other couples have dinner. When the women go to the kitchen to clean up, the men talk about the Petries. Mike suggests that maybe this time they should be told what happens if they don't keep up with the rules. Gogolak OKs the idea, but makes secret plans for Mike. Later at night, Mike is at home and discovers that his yard light is out. In a panic, he rushes outside to change the bulb, but he is attacked by a huge, dark, vaguely human shape, as Mike cries, "No, I fixed it, I fixed it..."

In the morning, neighbor Win Shroeder is washing the blood off Mike's porch steps with a garden hose. Mulder and Scully walk up to return Mike's dishes. Win tells them Mike is gone, on a business trip. Mulder goes to Gogolak to ask about the basketball hoop but is told that it's not in the rule book. Gogolak is an importer and travels to Tibet twice a year. Mulder and Scully have dinner with Win and Cami Shroeder and ask again about Mike. His office doesn't know where he is. The Shroeders are uncomfortable. Scully goes out with Cami to walk the dog, Scruffy. Scruffy gets away and crawls into a storm sewer, but then scoots back out in fear, covered with what appears to be blood. Scully collects some on a cloth, and also finds a necklace that Mike was earlier seen wearing in the drain. Mulder and Scully discuss the case as they get ready for bed, but Scully kicks Mulder out of the bedroom.

In the morning, Scully drives off to get the blood samples tested. Mulder puts a pink flamingo on his lawn, to provoke a reaction. Within a couple of minutes it has been removed. He kicks the mailbox to leave it leaning, then watches all day. Finally, when he goes to the bathroom, he finds that the mailbox has been straightened. Inside is a note saying "be like the others, before it gets dark." Later at night Mulder moves the basketball hoop outside and Win rushes over to try to talk Mulder out of the violation. As they talk, Cami is approached by the creature, which comes out of the ground. Mulder chases it off, but gets a look. Even later, when Scully gets home, she doesn't see Mulder outside. She thinks she hears noises in the house but it is apparently just Mulder, coming in a different door. The lab tests show that the blood samples are not really blood, just an odd collection of substances. The development was built on the site of a landfill. The agents consider that the Klines might still be there, buried in the yard.

The next day Mulder brings in heavy equipment and begins digging in the front yard. The neighbors are horrified, but Mulder claims to be building a reflecting pool. Gogolak tells neighbors Mulder is digging his own grave. At night, Mulder checks the hole. The equipment has dug up a lawn ornament labeled from Gogolak's import shop. They decide to bring in a forensic team and drop their cover story. Mulder goes off to arrest Gogolak while Scully phones for the team. She again hears noises in the house and finds her gun is missing. Something is coming up the stairs, and Scully is surprised by Big Mike, dirty, maybe bloody, saying that he has been hiding in the sewers and that the "uber menscher" has come for her. Mike locks Scully in a closet and faces the creature, repeatedly firing Scully's gun, to no avail.

Mulder accuses Gogolak of sending the lawn ornament to the Klines to mark them for death. Mulder believes that in Tibet Gogolak learned how to create a Tibetan folk creature, the Talpa, with his mind, but then could not control it. Walking Gogolak back to the Kline' s house, Mulder sees the lights in the house out. He cuffs Gogolak to the mailbox post and enters the house, finding Scully in the closet. Outside, Gogolak is attacked by his own creation and mortally wounded. The Schroders, next door, decline to help him. Mulder comes back outside and the creature turns on him, but when Gogolak dies, the creature falls apart into dirt. In the closing narration to the episode, Scully says that several homeowners have come forward to blame the deaths on Gogolak, but deny that there was a monster. The Falls at Arcadia is named the best planned community in California for the sixth year in a row.

Notes:

This episode contains a brief mention that this is the agent's first case after being reassigned to the X-Files, although when it was broadcast it was the third episode after "One Son." 1013 Productions reportedly has problems with Arcadia, causing it to be delayed and broadcast out of production order.

Scully gives the date February 24th as she records a video tape of the Kilen's house, however twice Mulder's watch is seen giving other dates, the 7th and 9th. This Timeline trusts Scully's date better.

The names "Rob and Laura Petrie" are taken from the long-running 1960s TV series "The Dick Van Dyke Show." The original Rob and Laura, however, did NOT pronounce it like the "petri dish."

February 1999?

Monday. At Cradok Marine Bank, police cars rush to a stop. Security lines are up. Assistant Director Skinner hurries up and a police lieutenant tells him a silent alarm went off 30 minutes earlier. A young woman, later identified as Pam, slips past the police line and shouts, "Skinner, don't let this happen," but he doesn't know her and an officer removes her. Skinner thinks two of his agents might be in the bank. Inside, Scully is on the floor with Mulder, who has been shot. The bank robber, Bernard, has explosives strapped to his chest. As a police squad in riot gear storm the bank, he hits the switch and the explosives destroy the bank.

On Monday morning, Mulder wakes up in his waterbed to find it leaking. Nothing goes right -- the floor is wet, his alarm clock is shorted out by the water, the downstairs neighbors call to complain about the water, his cell phone is soaked. At the X-Files office, Scully enters and tells him he is late for a meeting, but he has to make a bank deposit to cover the check for damages he gave his landlord. The bank is just down the street. Near the bank, Pam and Bernard are in a car. He says he has a quick errand to do and will be right back, entering the bank. Mulder walks by and jaywalks across the street. Pam says to herself "he never did that before." Mulder is waiting in line in the bank when Bernard begins the robbery. Mulder is on the floor with the other customers when Scully enters, looking for Mulder. She quickly draws her gun and in the commotion, Mulder is shot. Scully drops her gun to help Mulder. She is trying to "talk down" Bernard when riot police enter, and Bernard fires the explosive.

The events of Monday repeat themselves, slightly differently. This time the phone rings in Mulder's apartment a second time, but Mulder does not answer because he is busy with the leaking waterbed. It is Pam, trying to warn him. When she hangs up, Pam's boyfriend, Bernard, tells her that he is not going to work today, that there is no future in sweeping floors. He has a plan to make things better. In the X-Files office, Mulder and Scully talk about fate and about how nice it would sometimes be to rewind a bad day and start it over. Scully says she will deposit Mulder's check so he isn't late for the meeting, but a few minutes later he realizes he did not endorse the check. On his way to the bank to catch up with Scully, Pam stops him, saying that every day he passes her and every day everyone dies. Mulder hears a gunshot and rushes into the bank. Scully and Bernard have guns on each other and the three have a faceoff. When Bernard realizes that the silent alarm has been tripped, he sets off the explosive.

Monday begins again, again with small variations on the events we have already seen. This time, Pam approaches Scully at the FBI building before she finds Mulder in the X-Files office. Pam warns "if you walk into that bank you'll die." Scully is bemused, and heads off to find Mulder. Mulder is feeling a powerful sense of deja vu. What if deja vu is really a memory of events somehow being repeated? Scully is surprised when Mulder says he is going to the bank, and tells about what Pam said. Mulder agrees to use an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) just to be safe. He finds the ATM outside the bank is out of service. He sees Pam and she tells him that they have probably talked 50 times, but Mulder always runs into the bank to stop the robbery and everyone dies. Pam thinks something went very wrong the first time, and the events will keep repeating until Bernard does not blow up the bank. Mulder does not go into the bank, but when he gets to the meeting he is told that Scully has gone in search of him. She is in the bank when the robbery begins. Mulders comes in and shoots Bernard, but he manages to throw the switch that fires off the explosives. Seeing that he cannot prevent it, Mulder keeps repeating to himself, "he's got a bomb, he's got a bomb."

The Monday events happen again. This time, walking toward the bank, Mulder sees Pam waiting in the car. He asks if she knows him, but she won't talk. In the bank, Mulder is suspicious of Bernard, who is writing his robbery note. He phones Scully and gets her out of the meeting, telling her to get Pam from the car. Mulder intercepts Bernard before the robbery, trying to talk him out of it, but Bernard begins the robbery anyway. Scully and Pam enter. Mulder has Scully put down her gun and tells Bernard he and Pam can walk out of the bank and nobody will get hurt. Bernard hears police sirens approach and realizes the silent alarm has been activated. He aims at Mulder and fires his gun, but Pam jumps in front of Mulder and is shot. Mulder and Scully take Bernard into custody. As Pam is on the floor, bleeding, she smiles and says "this never happened to me before."

On Tuesday morning, Mulder wakes up on his sofa. Scully calls and says Mulder still hasn't explained how he knew there would be a robbery or how he knew there was an accomplice outside. Mulder says he doesn't think she was an accomplice, just someone who wanted to escape. The newspaper, delivered to Mulder's door, has the headline "woman dies in robbery attempt.

February, March or April 1999?

The Unnatural. On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, Mulder and Scully are in the office. Mulder is looking through old newspapers for evidence of flying saucers and finds an article mentioning Arthur Dales in Roswell, New Mexico, in a story relating to baseball. Scully has little time for baseball and accuses Mulder of being more interested in baseball than in work. Mulder goes to Dales' home and finds another man there, who says he is the former FBI agent's brother, also named Arthur Dales. (He says their parents were not very creative in selecting names.) Mulder tells Dales that the newspaper picture also appears to show an alien bounty hunter. Mulder has to validate himself by answering baseball trivia questions, but Dales eventually invites Mulder in. Dales asks the philosophical question of whether a passion can change a man, really shapeshift and transform him.

On June 29, 1947, Dales was a police officer in Roswell and was assigned to protect Negro baseball star Josh Exley from racist threats that the game of baseball should be kept white. Exley plays for an all-Negro team called the Roswell Grays. Dales ends up traveling on the team bus, and at night, in a lightning storm, Exley's reflection in the bus window appears to be the image of a gray alien. The next day, during a game, Exley is hit on the head with a ball and knocked out. He murrmers words in an unknown language and claims to be from Macon, Georgia. Dales finds green acid on the glove used to cushion Exley's head and sends it off to be tested. Dales calls the Macon police and learns that Josh Exley was a six year old child that disappeared about the time Exley arrived in Roswell. The Macon police officer Dales talks with is really a bounty hunter. Exley denies to Dales that he was ever in Macon. Dales thinks Exley "tanked" the game that day because American League scouts were there and he did not want to be recruited into the major leagues, because Exley has a secret.

That night, Dales sees a gray alien in Exley's room, wearing a baseball cap and holding a bat. Dales faints at the sight, but the alien wakes him up and tells him he is Exley -- this is his real face. Exley morphs into a pretty girl to prove his claim. The next day they talk more. Exley says his people guard their privacy and don't allow intermingling, but when he discovered baseball he immediately fell in love. The bounty hunter arrives in Roswell, looking for Exley. Posing as Exley, he goes to the lab and kills the lab technician who was testing the acid on the glove. Dales finds Exley and warns him that a witness claims he killed a man. Exley says he talked "with his family" and they want him to come home. He leaves, supposedly to go back home, and several "men in black" question Dales.

Exley actually, however, returns to the baseball team and plays a night game. The reason he does this is unclear, but possibly because he wants to hit one more home run and set a record. He considers the baseball diamond to be is real home, even though he seemed to say clearly to Dales that he was returning to his "family." (The teams for this game are wearing uniforms, but it is apparently out in the country and there are no spectators, as if they had to hide the fact that they were playing a mixed-race game.)

After a home run, several men in the white sheets of the Ku Klux Klan and carrying guns ride up on horses. Exley has gotten too good and the KKK wants to keep the game of baseball white-only. They threaten Exley, but the white baseball team overcomes the klansmen, one of whom, knocked unconscious, is seen to be a gray alien. Everyone else runs off and Exley confronts the bounty hunter, who quickly awakes. The bounty hunter says he warned Exley and tells him to show his true face so he can die with honor. Exley does not morph. Dales drives up as Exley is killed. The bounty hunter escapes and Dales concentrates on Exley, who is dying. Exley warns Dales that his blood is like acid, but Dales finds only red blood. As Dales had suggested to Mulder, Exley apparently loved the game of baseball so much that it transformed him into a human, but Mulder can't figure out if the story is metaphorical.

Late at night, Scully arrives at a baseball diamond where Mulder is hitting baseballs thrown by a machine. Scully claims she was called by "Fox Mantle" for an early or late birthday present. Mulder shows Scully how to use a bat, wrapping his arms closely around her. He jokes about leaving behind a career in medicine to hunt aliens and reveal a global conspiracy, but Scully says "shut up, Mulder. I'm playing baseball," with a big grin on her face. (Note: Scully's birthday is February 23, but this episode could anytime within weeks of her birthday -- probably later because of the nice weather in Washington DC.)

February or March 1999?

Milagro. A writer, later identified as Philip Padgett, is seen at a typewriter in a bare apartment. He is apparently struggling with his story and not writing much. Finally, he seems to reach his hand into his chest and actually remove his heart. (This is apparently done in his imagination, and not in reality.) Later, Padgett takes garbage to the furnace incinerator in the basement and seems to see a heart in the flames. On the elevator he sees Dana Scully, and is fascinated by her face. They are in Mulder's apartment building and Padgett is Mulder's new neighbor. Scully brings Mulder autopsy results from "the second victim." The heart of the victim was somehow removed without an incision. Padgett listens to the conversation through an air vent.

The conversation inspires him to write, and we see two young people in a car on "lover's lane." The boy, Kevin, makes a pass at Maggie, who leaves the car. As Kevin looks for her, he is approached by a hooded man and killed, the man putting his hand into Kevin's chest and removing his heart. Scully, in Mulder's office, receives a a phone call from Mulder, who is at the latest murder site. As he briefs her she finds an envelope pushed under Mulder's door. It contains a "milagro," a Spanish good luck charm. It proves impossible to trace who left it there. As Scully looks at the milagro and thinks, we hear Padgett's narration of his writing, describing her thoughts and impressions. Scully goes to a church and looks at a painting of Christ holding the "sacred heart." Padgett approaches Scully there and tells her the story of the sacred heart. He denies he is following her but rather imagined she would stop there. He speaks at length about what he has noticed about her and confesses he has formed a secret attraction for her.

Scully tells Mulder about Padgett and Mulder steals mail from Padgett's mailbox. The phone bill shows no calls made, but Mulder finds something of interest in the "D.C. Muse" tabloid left in the building entryway -- personal ad with Valentine greetings between Kevin and Maggie. Padgett writes that Scully was involuntarily complimented and intrigued by his interest in her and he depicts her thinking of a fantasy love scene with him. Scully arrives at the apartment building and hears Padgett typing. She knocks at his door to return the milagro, saying she does not return his interest, then accepts his invitation to come into the apartment for a cup of coffee. She denies, half-heartedly, that she is lonely. He admits that he is writing about her, that she lives in his old neighborhood. There was no place to rent in her building, so he moved to Mulder's. Because he has no furniture, the only place to sit is on Padgett's bed, which makes Scully very uncomfortable. Suddenly, Mulder bursts into the apartment, finds the novel chapters describing actual crimes and arrests Padgett.

Mulder accuses Padgett of the murders, saying he targets his victims from personal ads. Padgett denies it, saying he just uses his imagination to write about them, and that Jungians would say that the characters choose the writer, not the other way around. The book identifies a "psychic surgeon" who claimed to be able to reach inside bodies, but Scully confirms that the man has been dead for two years. Scully tends to believe Padgett, and points out that Mulder does something like it when he profiles a suspect and predicts what a criminal will do. Mulder says it's different from describing exact details of a crime in advance and is convinced Padgett is communicating with a confederate. Padgett writes on a tablet about a murder by the hooded man in a cemetery and evidence of a struggle is found near the grave Padgett described. Mulder sees a cemetery worker wearing a hooded sweatshirt and tackles him, finding the dead woman in the worker's truck.

In order to trap Padgett they release him. Padgett tells them he was wrong when he wrote about Scully falling in love because she is already in love -- obviously a reference to Mulder, but the agents don't seem to understand. Padgett returns home and the agents observe him with a hidden video camera, watching through the air vent. They see Padgett just sitting before his typewriter, but in Padgett's perception he is visited by his fictional character, the hooded man, who demands to know his motivation, which Padgett admits he can't figure out. The man speaks with an hispanic accent, probably because he is based on the South American psychic surgeon. The conversation ends when the hooded man says there can only be one ending, that Scully dies.

Padgett runs out of his apartment and Mulder follows, to the basement where Padgett wants to burn his manuscript. Still in Mulder's apartment, Scully is attacked by the hooded man. They struggle and she fires her gun at him, without effect. Mulder hears the shots and runs back upstairs, while Padgett throws the manuscript into the fire. Mulder finds Scully bloody, but safe, with the hooded man gone. She is traumatized and hugs him tightly. We hear a final narration by Padgett and see him on the floor by the incinerator, his still-beating heart in his hand. (Note: The dates in this episode are confusing. The phone bill appears to say the latest payment was in November, but the personal ad clearly mentions Valentine's Day, in February. Because the tabloid could have been in the lobby for some time, the episode date is very uncertain.)

March 1999?

Alpha. The T'ien Kou, a Chinese merchant marine freighter, is at sea. Two crew members enter the hold and look at a shipping crate. One says the animal inside tried to bite him. Looking into a access plate, they see only glowing eyes, but the animal then tries to attack, shaking the crate. It stops abruptly and the crew members become concerned that they may have killed the animal. They unlock and open the crate....but viewers do not see what happens. At the port of San Pedro, California, officials enter the hold. Two crew members have been found dead, locked inside the shipping crate. Dr. Ian Detweiler is there -- he is the owner of the crate and complains that the priceless animal has escaped, or been stolen.

At FBI Headquarters, Mulder has pictures of the dead crew. The manifest said a dog was being shipped, which Scully doubts. Dog bites rarely directly cause death, and the men were locked inside the crate -- something a dog could not do. Meanwhile, at night in Bellflower, California, a customs agent, Jack Conroy, shouts to drive off a dog he thinks is lurking outside his home. He goes inside and finds his own pet dog, Jo Jo, dead on the floor. A large wolf is also inside the house and attacks Conroy.

Mulder and Scully visit the freighter at San Pedro and talk with US Fish and Wildlife agents, including Jeffrey Cahn. They have searched the ship and the dog is not on-board. The FBI agents are told that Detweiler is a cryptozoologist -- someone who studies extinct species. Detweiler has said that the dog is a rare species, thought to be extinct for 150 years, that he caught recently in China. The agents are notified of the vicious dog attack on the customs agent. Visiting the site, it is obvious that this is not a normal attack, since the doors to the house were all closed. Mulder suspects that the dog might somehow have human intelligence. They visit Karin Berquist, an expert on canine behavior. She first tipped Mulder to the case, but she has little to say, other than that canines often use elaborate trickery to catch prey. The dog is a Wangshang Dhole, a legendary trickster dog. She closes the blinds to darken the room. She has an "I Want to Believe" poster on the wall. After Karin leaves, Mulder tells Scully that he and Karin "met on-line."

A fish and wildlife officer, Frank Fiedler, sees evidence of animal scavaging near a city garbage pile. He investigates and seeing something, enters a nearby building. As he moves through the dark basement, he is approached by a man, hardly more than a shadow because of a light behind him, who then transforms into the shape of a dog and attacks. Mulder talks with Cahn after they learn of the latest attack. Cahn accuses Detweiler of being involved. Detweiler arrives and claims he tranquilized the dog in China after tracking it for two weeks. Karin also shows up to help. Later, Detweiler privately tells Cahn that he will kill Cahn if Cahn kills the dog. Mulder and Scully return to Karin's home, and she is more helpful this time. She computer enhances a pawprint found in the basement and it has a vestigal additional claw. Karin says some scientists think it might have been a prehensile thumb in dogs of the distant past. Later alone with Mulder, Scully questions Karin's motives. She thinks Karin is enamored of Mulder and may have tricked him to be able to meet in person.

Detweiler visits the Riley Animal Clinic to buy tranquilizer, saying he plans to use it to try to catch the dog. A dog at the clinic barks at Detweiler. At night, as the Riley locks up for the night he finds the killer dog inside his kennel. He manages to escape, locking the dog in the kennel, and calls the Fish and Wildlife service. Agents enter the kennel and shoot at a darting form, but it is Duke, the dog that earlier barked at Detweiler and was supposedly taken home by his owner. Mulder and Scully arrive as the vet finishes up treating Duke's injuries. Scully notices from a photo on the wall that Riley knows Karen, but Scully hears a cry and finds Riley dead by the table where he was treating Duke. Scully and Mulder check Riley, then leave to call authorities. When they are gone, Duke transforms into the killer dog, and escapes.

Scully questions Karin privately. As a doctor, Scully realizes that Karin has lupus, making her sensitive to light, but she has ignored the serious symptoms for years. Mulder intrigued and challenged her when they met on-line. Karin does not believe that the legendary trickster dog, if it exists, could have been captured by Detweiler. At the animal hospital, Mulder finds evidence of Detweiler's purchase of tranquilizers and talks with Cahn by radio, but immediately after the conversation, Cahn finds the dog in his car and Cahn is attacked. Cahn does not die but is hospitalized at Los Angeles County Hospital in Torrence. Mulder goes to his room and finds Detweiler there. Mulder accuses Detweiler of the killing -- that instead of catching the legendary dog the dog caught Detweiler, infecting him so that at night Detweiler transforms into the killer dog. Mulder thinks that the tranquilizer Detweiler bought was for use on himself, to prevent the transformation, but it failed. At the hospital, Mulder sees Karin talk with Detweiler. She tells him "I protected you as long as I could, but I won't any longer."

Mulder goes to Karin's home and confronts her because she has not been truthful with him. She believes the killer is Detweiler, acting out the classic dominant alpha territorial behavior in protecting its territory. She says he's got to be "put down" and warns Mulder that he will return to the hospital to finish his kill of Cahn. Mulder and Scully spent the night at the hospital, but around 2 am Mulder finally realizes that Karin has deceived him again. At her home, she senses that the dog is near and goes upstairs to prepare a tranquilizer pistol. The dog enters the house and climbs the stairs to her room, but she does not shoot it. Instead she invites it to attack. Together they fall backwards out a second story window.

Mulder and Scully arrive to find Karin and Detweiler dead -- Detweiler impaled by falling onto a metal fence post. Back at the FBI, Mulder feels guilty but Scully tells him it's not his fault. Mulder believed too quickly. Karin had lots of secrets, lived by her instincts and saw a kindred spirit in Mulder. Scully gives Mulder a mailing tube that arrived with Karen's return address. Mulder opens it and finds the "I Want to Believe" poster. He puts it on the bulletin board where his own copy was destroyed by fire months earlier.

April 1999?

Trevor. At a prison farm in Mississippi, inmates are nailing plywood over windows because of a wind storm. One inmate, Pinker Rawls, assaults another, and is put "in the box," as punishment. The box is a small shack in the middle of the prison yard. A tornado passes through and the shack is blown three miles away. Rawls is thought to be dead. The Captain of the prison farm is found in his office, his body cut in two.

Scully examines the Captain in the local morgue. It is as if a narrow section of the middle of his body was burned through. Scully speculates about spontaneous human combustion, but Mulder is convinced it was murder. In the Captain's office, he finds a section of the exterior wall is so brittle that he can easily knock holes in it. That night, a security officer finds Rawls in store, stealing clothing, and arrests him, handcuffing him, but as the officer makes a radio call, Rawls escapes and drives off in the security officer's car. Visiting the scene, Mulder discovers that the handcuffs are now so brittle that he can easily snap them in two.

Rawls goes to his former residence, where he had lived with his girl friend, June. He knows Bo Merkle, who lives there now, who also lived with June after Rawls was sent to prison, but she moved out four years earlier. Merkle shoots Rawls several times, but he is not injured. When Mulder and Scully arrive, having traced Rawls' last known address, they find Merkle dead, the inside of his skull burned out. Eight years ago Rawls robbed a "wire office" of $90,000 and it was never recovered. He is apparently looking for the money. Mulder thinks Rawls can pass through solid objects, changing their composition -- possibly caused by the tornado. They can find no trace of his ex-girl friend, June, but they locate an address for her sister, Jackie.

Rawls gets to Jackie's first, walking through a wall to question Jackie, but Mulder and Scully drive up and Rawls leaves. Jackie and her son are not hurt. Burned into a wall they find the words "I want what's mine." Jackie tells them where to find June, and they drive off, not knowing that Rawls is in the trunk of the agents' rented car. June tells them she found the money after Rawls was in prison and spent it -- on her nice house, a computer, etc. She just wanted another chance. Her current boyfriend is shocked and declines to go into protective custody with her. Putting June's suitcase into the trunk of the car, Mulder finds the metal to be brittle and realizes Rawls is in the area. They don't find him but inside the house they have just left they find "I want what's mine" burned into the wall, but the burn stops at a mirror. Mulder theorizes that if his power is based on electricity, then non-conductive materials could be used to stop him. He orders rubber riot bullets. Scully finds medical paperwork from seven years earlier indicating that June had a child.

Rawls follows June to a safe house and kidnaps her, killing the officer guarding her. On a lonely side road, in a stolen station wagon, June confesses that she had a son, Trevor Andrew. Meanwhile, Scully determines that there is no adoption record. They realize that Jackie's son might really be June's. Rawls and June show up at Jackie's. Rawls meets Trevor and scares him by locking June in a storage closet. Jackie throws hot soup at Rawls, but it passes through him. Trevor runs outside and Rawls follows. Trevor runs to Mulder and Scully, who have just arrived. As Scully takes Trevor back to the car, Mulder fires rubber bullets at Rawls, who ducks through a wall and escapes. Rawls intercepts Scully as she and Trevor reach the car. They escape him by ducking into a glass telephone booth. Rawls starts to break in, but backs off when he realizes he is terrifying Trevor. June, somehow escaping from the locked closet, runs Rawls down with the station wagon. He passes through parts of it, but the glass windshield hits him and kills him. Mulder finally shows up and June tells him she had to stop Rawls. "What did he want?" she asks. "Maybe another chance," answers Mulder. (Note: There is no clear date given in this episode. Tornado season in Mississippi covers many months. June is seen to look at a bridal magazine dated July, but such magazines often hit the stands many weeks before their listed dated.)

April 1999?

Three of a Kind. The episode begins with a "Previously on the X-Files" segment, showing the Lone Gunmen's 1989 encounter with Suzanne Modeski, then shows an opening narration by Byers in which he says he dreams of living the perfect life but the dream always ends and he loses it all. In his dream, Suzanne is his wife. The last scene in this segment is of Byers, standing in a bleak desert, holding a wedding ring.

The Lone Gunmen are at the hotel hosting "Def-Con '99" in Las Vegas, a convention of black ops technology and trying to discover details of secret technology, although they are not allowed in to the conference itself. In a complicated ruse, Byers is in a private poker game, pretending to be a defense contractor, but another player, who we later learn is named Grant Ellis, entraps him with fake jargon, and Byers is kicked out, losing $3,000 in the process. The Gunmen return to their room. Two other geeks come to their door, Jimmy and Timmy, and invite them to go to supper. In a private moment, it becomes clear that Byers pushes for the Gunmen to attend such conventions because he is looking for Suzanne -- they first met her at a convention in Baltimore. On the way to supper, Byers sees Suzanne in the casino, but cannot catch up with her.

Mulder calls Scully in the middle of the night, telling her that the Gunmen have found something big and she has to come to Las Vegas, but it is the Gunmen using a computer to fake Mulder's voice. Later, getting ice, Byers sees Suzanne again. A man enters her hotel room and she kisses him. The Gunmen hack into the hotel computer and learn that the room belongs to Grant Ellis, who they learn is an employee of the Advanced Weapons Research facility, where Suzanne worked ten years earlier. Byers urgently wants to get into the closed room where the actual Def-Con seminar is taking place. Jimmy knows how -- he crawls through an air duct. He sees Suzanne in the room, and is surprised to see his friend, Timmy -- Timothy Landau -- also in the seminar. Jimmy is caught and injected with something. A short time later he jumps in front of a bus, killing himself. Meanwhile, Scully has just arrived and she wonders why she can't reach Mulder by phone.

Frohike, dressed as a maintenance worker, gets into Suzanne's room to plant a video recorder in the room, but he finds a recorder already there, in an air duct. Suzanne returns and Frohike hides in the bathroom. Then Byers comes to the door. Suzanne recognizes him but denies she has been brainwashed. Yes, she was kidnapped ten years earlier, but "things got better." While they talk, Frohike escapes through another air duct. At the morgue, Scully begins an autopsy of Jimmy. Langly is there, but has to leave the room because he gets sick. While he is retching, Landau finds Scully and injects her. Langly finds her on the floor, groggy and thinks she is jetlagged. She acts goofy, but says she found nothing in the autopsy.

The Gunmen later watch the tape from the Suzanne's room. She comes to their room, and wants to explain to Byers, asking the other two to leave. "THEY" took her and did terrible things, but Ellis saved her. "I wanted it to be you, John." She didn't trust Ellis at first, but then realized he was working against them from within. They had planned to go public on the last day of this convention, expose THEM and escape. In the casino, Landau, still posing as a geek, invites Langly to a Dungeons and Dragons game in memory of Jimmy, but when they get to the room, Langly is injected. Frohike, meanwhile, finds a giddy Scully, surrounded by men. X-Files fans will notice that Morris Fletcher is one of them. Scully is acting like a bimbo, but Frohike grabs her and takes her back to the Gunmen's room. Suzanne recognizes the effects of a drug she developed, "AH," Analytic Histamine, which impedes higher brain functions and makes the victim subject to suggestion. She gives Scully an antidote. Langly is also back in the room.

Later, Langly returns to Landau's room, with his hair looking short. (Actually it is in a severe pony tail, stuck down inside his jacket.) He is programmed to get into the seminar and is given a gun. At a conference break, Langly approached Suzanne and shoots her in the chest, but it is a setup. Suzanne had discovered that Langly was injected, and also given him the antidote. Frohike and Byers arrive, dressed as ambulance technicians, and take Suzanne away. Scully takes Ellis into custody and takes him to Suzanne's room, where he realizes she was not hurt. She is left alone with Ellis and he says he had to trick her to save his own life. Landau enters and shoots Ellis, then takes Suzanne to the Gunmen's room. After a scuffle, Landau is injected by Byers, and pacified. He is eventually charged with murder. Scully finally reaches Mulder by phone, and realized he knows nothing about what is going on. Suzanne is legally dead and Byers provides her a new ID. She asks him to come with her, but he says she will be safer without him. She promises him "some day..." and gives him a ring she says was intended for Grant.

May 1999?

Field Trip. A man and a woman return home after a day of hiking and argue -- he left her behind by walking faster. Her head hurts and while showering she has memory flashes about being covered in goo. Later, in bed, they snuggle together, and the scene transforms to two skeletons in the same position, outdoors.

Mulder and Scully discuss the skeletons of Wallace and Angela Schiff, missing only a few days. Dental records show positive ID. Scully speculates about a ritualistic killing with the bodies boiled to remove all tissue. Mulder says the bodies were found on Brown Mountain, North Carolina, where mysterious lights have been seen floating above the mountain for hundreds of years. They go to North Carolina and examine the remains. There is some yellow goo on some of the bones, like we saw Angela remember. Scully examines the skeleton while Mulder goes to the field where the bodies were found. He sees a man who appears to be Wallace and chases him into a cave. Mulder catches up with Wallace, who claims to have been abducted by aliens. A bright light shines into the mouth of the cave and Angela appears. She has a classic abduction story, except Mulder can't figure out the skeletons, which have no precedent in other abduction reports. The bright light returns and he walks into it.

Scully determines that the goo is some sort of plant-based digestive secretion. She hurries out to find Mulder, and as she follows his footprints she steps on some mushrooms that release spores. She follows him to the cave but it is just a shallow hole and he is not inside, so she leaves. Back in Washington D.C., Scully receives an urgent call from Mulder to come to his apartment. He brushes off questions about why he returned from North Carolina without her because he has Wallace and Angela there with him. In his bedroom he also has a shy little gray alien, who communicates with him and Scully telepathically. Mulder says when he was abducted he abducted the alien in return. Scully is astounded and completely convinced, which surprises Mulder. His head hurts and the room distorts. He is still in the cave, covered with goo.

Scully returns to the cave with the local medical examiner. There is goo seeping out of the ground and now there are tracks leading both in and out of the cave. A short distance away they find a skeleton which dental records eventually show is Mulder's. The medical examiner disturbs Scully to suggesting the identical ritualistic killing scenario she proposed to Mulder. In Washington, she talks with Skinner and is surprised that he accepts her report, since it had no answers. She realizes that her scientific explanations rarely explain X-Files. She goes to Mulder's apartment and finds a wake in progress. The Lone Gunmen are there and many other people. Other people stand by the coffin in Mulder's bedroom. Scully is disturbed that the Lone Gunmen accept the murder theory without question. They should be "all over this" as something that has a hidden cause. Scully ends up screaming, "what have you done with him?"

Mulder knocks on the door and when he enters his apartment, all of the other people disappear. He tells of being abducted, but he cannot answer her questions -- even about why he knocked on his own apartment door. Scully concludes that it is all an hallucination and that the mushroom spores in the field are causing it. What if the mushroom and the goo are from the same organism and they are still in the cave, and the organism needs to feed on flesh? It could be digesting them right now. Mulder struggles out of the soil and pulls Scully after him. Later, they report to Skinner. The organism extends for at least ten acres underground and the spores have a structure similar to LSD. Skinner comments that it is a rare day when Mulder and Scully both agree on the explanation of an X-Files. That makes Mulder wonder. He doesn't understand how they escaped. He asks Scully to name one other drug that loses its effect when the person realises he is drugged.

To prove they are still drugged, Mulder pulls out his gun and shoots Skinner. Goo comes out of the bullet holes. They are still underground. Mulder begins struggling, although he presumably can't see where he is. His hand reaches above the soil and he is found by a search part lead by Skinner. They are all wearing air filter masks -- apparently because one of the tests revealed the action of the spores. Mulder and Scully are pulled out of the ground and loaded into an ambulance. They hold hands as they are driven off.

June 1999

Identical stepsisters Betty and Lulu each independently moves to Kansas City, KS. One of their Kansas driver's licenses has a date of 6-12-99 on it. (Fight Club)

Summer 1999

Two year old Molly Goldman falls in the family swimming pool. When her mother, Jackie, finds her, she has been in the water for ten minutes but is breathing underwater. Jackie is pregnant with Kyle at the time. Her husband take Molly and Jackie flees, but her car strikes an animal and rolls. Mental signals from the unborn Kyle make Jackie cut open her abdomen to allow the infant Kyle to escape. He is found by the Gilligan family and raised as their own. Molly lives in confinement in Goldman's research institute. In Founder's Mutation, Mulder says that Jackie has been institutionalized for 17 years. Summer is indicated by the swimming pool weather in the Washington DC area.

September/October 1999?

Biogenesis. The episode begins with a narration by Scully describing planet Earth as seen from space, the beginning of life, and the series of mass extinctions that have happened in the past. Are we already on our way to another mass extinction? On the beach in Ivory Coast, a scientist examines a find -- a fragment of a tablet with symbols on it, found in the sand. In his office back at the Ivory Coast university, he joins it with what appears to be another fragment of the same tablet. The two parts merge and the tablet flies across the tent, embedding itself in a Bible. As the scientist removes the tablet, the Bible opens to the Genesis verse that says, "And God blessed them and God said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth..."

Three days later, the scientist, Solomon Merkmallen, is at American University in Washington DC. He meets Dr. Sandoz, who has reportedly found another fragment of the tablet, but Sandoz acts funny and Merkmallen suspects that he is an imposter. The real Dr. Sandoz arrives at the lab and finds Merkmallen dead on the floor, the tablet missing. Skinner briefs Mulder and Scully on their assignment to investigate Merkmallen's death. The body is missing, as is Dr. Sandoz. Merkmallen and Sandoz both believed in the theory of "Panspermia," that life on Earth originated from organisms that arrived from space. When Mulder sees a pencil rubbing of Merkmallen's tablet, he experiences a spell of noise, dissonance and mental disruption. On the way back to Mulder's office, Scully confesses that she no longer sees the need for Mulder's search for "the truth." He has exposed the global conspiracy and the conspirators are all dead. What more does he want? He replies, "My sister."

When Mulder and Scully visit Sandoz's lab, the imposter is there. He is the Biology Department chair, Dr. Barnes. He has made a career of exposing religious and scientific fraud. When Scully shows him the rubbing, Mulder experiences another spell. Back at Mulder's office, Scully has brought "Chuck" in, an expert who has appeared in previous episodes. Chuck says the characters on the rubbing are phonetic Navaho, but since it was found in Africa it is likely a fake. Mulder wonders if it would be in Barnes' best interests to hide proof of the real thing. Mulder thinks Barnes killed Merkmallen. The agents visit the Sandoz residence in Maryland. They find a photo of Sandoz with Albert Hosteen and evidence that Sandoz has traveled frequently to Navaho country. In the kitchen trash compactor they find Merkmallen's body. They report to Skinner that there are traces of Cosmic Galactic Radiation in Merkmallen's remains, radiation found only in space that apparently came from the tablet. Mulder thinks Sandoz is innocent. His spells lead him to believe that Skinner is not telling them everything. When the agents leave Skinner's office, we see that Skinner video taped their meeting, and he gives the tape to Alex Krycek.

Scully tells Mulder to rest and she goes to New Mexico to find Albert. He is in the hospital and is being taken to treatment as she arrives. In his room she finds another copy of the rubbing. On the back is the verse from Genesis. Scully is told that Albert is dying from cancer. When Albert is returned to his room, Scully sees Sandoz and chases him. He says Albert was the only one of the WWII Navaho code talkers who would work with him. Scully cannot believe that an extraterrestrial artifact would have a Bible verse on it. Albert told Sandoz that Sandoz's fragment contained what appeared to be random letters. Meanwhile, Mulder returns to American University and follows Barnes, experiencing additional spells. Finally he collapses in a stairwell. Krycek walks past him and approaches Barnes saying they are destined to become great friends. Scully telephones Mulder and Diana Fowley answers. Mulder is at home, resting. Mulder tells Scully if it really is a passage from Genesis on the tablet, it is proof that the origin of life on Earth is extraterrestrial. Scully cannot accept that. After the call, Diana phones someone to report on Mulder, then she begins undressing. We see the Smoking Man in a meeting where various men are talking about managing a crisis.

Albert is taken into a Navaho sweat lodge for a traditional healing ceremony. Scully will not go in because she does not share their beliefs. Skinner phones her and says Mulder is in serious condition and that Scully should come at once. She arrives to find Mulder in the psychiatric ward, in a padded room. He is delirious with abnormal brain functions. Skinner seems to know details of Scully's investigation that she has not reported. Diana claims Mulder called her and said she was the only one who would believe him. Scully says "You're both liars." In Mulder's office, Scully looks for a camera hidden in the ceiling. (The viewer knows there is a hidden camera -- Scully may or may not have determined it for sure.) Sandoz interrupts her search with a phone call -- he has realized that the random letters on the tablet are gene sequences -- a map to the human genetic structure. If only we could find more pieces...Scully hears a gunshot. Krycek has killed Sandoz.

On the beach in Ivory Coast 36 hours later, Scully is at Merkmallen's camp. His workers take her to another tablet found in the sand. It is much larger, and Scully realizes it is actually part of a much larger structure (presumably an alien spacecraft), under water, where the ocean meets the sand. To be continued....

Note: Closed captioning for this episode used the spelling "Navaho," although "Navajo" is also commonly accepted.

Mid-September 1999

Sheila Fontaine has married Holman Hardt and they have a baby. The weather in Kroner, Kansas, is wonderful.(Rain King)

October 7, 1999

Indiola, West Virginia, native Lynette Peattie is critically injured in a bus rollover in the San Francisco area. In a hospital emergency room she is treated by Robert Wieder but when he realizes that he cannot save her live he gives her a large injection of morphine. This eases her pain but shortens her live by around 20 minutes. She is recorded as a "Jane doe" because she carries no identification with her and nobody claims the body. Her father, Oral, grieves because he believes that if he had been there, he could have saved her life with his powerful folk medicine. He comes to resent Wieder for hastening his daughter's death. (Theef)

October 1999??

The Sixth Extinction. In Ivory Coast, Scully is studying the apparent craft found in the surf. She came to find something she did not believe in and stayed on to uncover what Mulder's illness prevents him from finding. In the tent at night, she glimpses a traditionally-garbed native who then disappears. The tent is filled with a swarm of flying insects. The next day, a woman biologist from the University of Ivory Coast arrives, named Amina N'Gebe. The discovery is still a secret but she has learned of it. She warns Scully not to tell the workers about her vision and the insects. They are animists and would take it as a bad sign. They are interrupted when a man working in the surf screams -- he has somehow been burned in the water.

Dr. Barnes arrives at the camp. He denies being a killer. He has been threatened by men in Washington, but he knows what has come ashore. He has spent his life searching for answers and he is there to help read what is on the craft. The sea around the craft turns red and Scully sees a vision of the native, who again disappears. Later, Scully is assembling a mosaic of the text on the outside of the craft. Barnes has translated some. The upper surface has references to human genetics. The bottom has quotes from the Bible, Koran, ancient Sumeria and other sources, referring to the Day of Judgement. Barnes, however, has become mentally disturbed. He threatens Scully and N'Gebe, saying it is his discovery and nobody leaves before he does, so he will get the credit for the discovery.

At night, Barnes discovers that some fish he has in a bag have come back to life. He claims the ship has brought them back to life. As he is distracted, Scully hits him with a chair, then she and N'Gebe escape, driving off. Scully sees the native in the road, then he appears inside the land rover, reaching out his hand to her and saying "some truths are not for you." He disappears, and N'Gebe did not see him. Scully decides it is time for her to go home. Back at the camp, Barnes kills his driver, then later discovers that the driver has come back to life. The driver, looking like a zombie, attacks Barnes, who falls beside part of the craft.

Meanwhile, in Washington Mulder's brain is so active he cannot sleep. Skinner enters his cell and Mulder tries to strangle him, but Skinner later finds that Mulder has slipped a note into his pocket saying "help me." Skinner returns and sees Mulder in private. Mulder cannot speak, but manages to write something on Skinner's hand, "Kr..." It leads Skinner to Michael Kritschgau, whose career was destroyed by testifying to Congress about the UFO coverup. At the hospital, Kritschgau recognizes Mulder's condition from past CIA experiments into ESP. Kritschgau gives Mulder a different drug, without Doctors knowing about it, which eases Mulder's condition. Fowley arrives and is suspicious of why Skinner and Kritschgau are there. Mulder tells Skinner that he knows Skinner has been compromised -- that Krycek is blackmailing him. Mulder says Kritschgau can prove what is causing his condition.

Later, Kritschgau conducts a test of Mulder's "remote viewing" abilities. Initially the results are modest, but when Skinner has the test speeded up, Mulder shows almost perfect accuracy. Kritschgau says the CIA showed that some people have ESP, but it was never attributed to aliens.

Skinner and Kritschgau attempt to remove Mulder from the hospital but Fowley and the doctor interrupt them. Mulder goes into convulsions. Alone later, Fowley talks to Mulder, although he appears to be catatonic. She says she knows Mulder knows that her loyalties are to a man he hates, but he can look inside her and understand why. She loves him and won't let him die. There is no need to prove what he is -- it has been known for a long time. Scully arrives back in Washington and first goes to Skinner's office, where he tells her what has happened to Mulder. He is under security. They won't treat him because they don't know what is wrong with him. She says he is not dying and the cause is alien. She uses her authority as a doctor to get in to see Mulder. Although he doesn't seem aware, she tells him that if he knows what she has found, he will be able to hold on. It is a puzzle, but the answers can save him. "Mulder, please hold on."

In the Ivory Coast, Amina N'Gebe returns to the camp with police. They find Barnes, dead near the water. The camera pulls back and there is no evidence of the craft. To be continued...

October 1999?

The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati. Mulder has a dream of himself at the beach, watching a child and his family, while his mother talks with a doctor. She is upset that his treatment is not helping him. She visits his bedside and talks to him. He answers her in his mind, but she cannot hear him. When she leaves, he is distressed. We then see the Cigarette Smoking Man in his room, and they converse without speaking aloud. The Smoking Man gives Mulder an injection. Only part of Mulder is dying. The Smoking Man offers Mulder a way out. "Take my hand, Fox. I am your father." Mulder gets up and leaves the hospital with him and is driven to a neighborhood where he will assume a new life, in a kind of witness protection program.

The Smoking Man tells him he could go back to his other life, and probably die, but encourages him to look around first. In the new house provided to him Mulder finds a larder well stocked with sunflower seeds, and he finds that Deep Throat is alive, not killed six years ago. Deep Throat tells Mulder that he can let go of his guilt -- that they are all just puppets in a master plan. He has suffered a long time, but now he can relax. He claims to live just down the street. In a dream of the beach, Mulder sees a boy whose sand castle, shaped like an alien ship, has washed away. "That's OK buddy, you can just start again," he tells the boy. Mulder wakes and Diana walks in wearing lingerie. They kiss and the picture fades out.

The next morning Diana brings Mulder a cup of coffee in front of their new house. It's all perfect, but Mulder isn't sure what he is doing there. They go to visit the Smoking Man who also lives a few blocks away. The Smoking Man says Samantha has been living there all along, as well as his three grandchildren. Samantha comes up and hugs Fox. We see, however, that Mulder is really in a hospital imagining all this. A device is on his head. Diana asks if Mulder dreams. The Smoking Man answers that dreams are all he has now.

Meanwhile, Scully is asleep in the X-Files office, where she had been studying the Navaho texts from the ship. Kritschgau enters and claims that the energy from the piece of the ship reactivated the virus Mulder was infected with two years earlier. Skinner phones and tells Scully that Mulder has disappeared. The records show that Mulder's mother checked him out. Skinner says he shouldn't be involved anymore because he is compromised and the less he knows the better.

Arriving back home, Scully hears a noise and finds Albert Hosteen in her apartment, which stuns her because she thought he was very ill. Albert tells her that she must find Mulder before something happens. Scully begins her search and learns that surveillance cameras were blacked out when Mulder left. But Scully gets a glimpse of Teena Mulder talking with the Smoking Man. Scully tries to reach Teena, without luck. Scully receives a book on Native American beliefs and practices, with Navaho writing on it. A section on the Anasazi mentions the sixth extinction and a myth about a man who can save us from the coming plague. She feels that the book explains the symbols on the ship. Scully doesn't know who sent the book to her. Entering Skinner's office, she sees a man who we understand is Krycek assaulting Skinner, but she cannot catch him in the crowded FBI halls.

Scully confronts Kritschgau at his apartment and accuses him of being telling someone about Mulder, resulting in Mulder's disappearance. On his laptop she finds her own files of the symbols on the ship. He claims he was having them analyzed by the National Institute of Health. Wherever she got the information, it proves what happened to Mulder, he says. Scully deletes the files from the computer. At FBI HQ, Scully confronts Diana who says Scully could have prevented what happened to Mulder. Scully tries to convince Diana to help, asking her to think, "wouldn't he bust his ass to save you?" Diana responds, "I'm thinking, Agent Scully, I'm always thinking."

In a lab, a doctor and the Smoking Man talk. The implication is that Mulder is a compatible human-alien hybrid. He's immune to the coming viral apocalypse, but he may not survive the medical procedures. The Smoking Man says if he doesn't survive, he suffers a hero's fate. Inside his dream, in rapid succession, Mulder sees himself and Diana married, and sees her pregnant. He sees himself and Diana with children and his hair is graying, then he is older and sees Diana in a coffin, then sees the boy on the beach. The boy has built a sand castle of the alien ship, but is kicking it apart. "You were supposed to help me," the boy tells Mulder.

Albert is back at Scully's apartment. This science makes no sense to her. He answers that she must look inside. They pray together, kneeling on the floor. Meanwhile, Mulder and the Smoking Man are both on operating tables. They are apparently removing genetic material from Mulder and inserting it into the Smoking Man, who says he will carry on for Mulder from here. Diana makes a statement confirming that Mulder is the Smoking Man's son, but suffers an attack of remorse and leaves. In the dream, Mulder is now a very old man. He and the Smoking Man talk. All Mulder's loved ones are dead and are waiting for him; it is time for him to go. As they speak, outside we see flames as alien spacecraft destroy the city. In a different scene, we see Kritschgau is dead on the floor of his apartment. Krycek burns various official documents then leaves with the apartment in flames, taking Kritschgau's laptop with him.

Scully wakes up on the floor of her apartment. An envelope has been slipped under her door containing an electronic pass key for a Department of Defense facility. She rushes to the DOD hospital and finds Mulder in the operating room with all of the people gone. As she does so, in his dream she also finds him, as a very old man. She says he is not supposed to die in a comfortable bed with the devil outside, to trade his true mission for creature comforts. "You must get up and fight," she says in the dream. In the operating room, he struggles to chose between his fantasy life and reality, then wakes. Scully says, "we've got to get you out of here. You've got to get up. Help me." He replies, "you help me." They hug.

One week later, Mulder is at home, still wearing a head bandage, and his New York Yankees "Victory Cap." Scully arrives and Mulder informs her that Albert died last night - he had been in a coma for two weeks. Scully can't believe it because she talked with him and they prayed together. She doesn't know what to believe. She doesn't know what the truth is. Scully tells Mulder that Diana was found murdered this morning. Scully believes that Diana helped save Mulder's life - she gave Scully the book and the electronic key.

Mulder says he didn't know who to trust. One thing remained the same - Scully remained his friend and told him the truth. When the world was falling apart she was his constant. "And you are mine," she replies. She kisses him on the forehead. In the final scene, we see Mulder and the boy on the beach again. Mulder is helping the boy build a huge, very detailed sand castle of the alien ship.

(Note: Dating of the Biogenesis-Sixth Extinction story is difficult. In En Ami, the Smoking Man says that his operation was in "the fall." In the final scene of Sixth Extinction, Mulder references the World Series. The Yankees won the World Series on October 27, 1999 so this scene, which was one week after Scully found him in the DOD facility, probably took place shortly after October 27. It could have been late September at the very earliest. The Yankees clinched the American League East division, the first "victory" of the season, in the last week of September. The reference to Albert having been in a coma for two weeks would appear to indicate that the entire continued story line lasted slightly more than two weeks. On the other hand, Scully could have been in Africa for several weeks, with Albert rallying and relapsing. On the third hand, Scully was not absent for so long that Skinner could not cover for her absence.)

October 1999?

Beginning around now, a scientist in the Defense Advanced Research Agency begins e-mail correspondence with Scully, with the intent of eventually turning over science to her that allows the end to human disease and immortality. In fact, though, Scully is not involved in the correspondence. Agents of the Smoking Man pose as Scully, apparently periodically invading her apartment to use her laptop, in order to entrap the scientist, who uses the code name "Cobra." (En Ami)

After his hospitalization for his undiagnosed brain activity, Mulder begins a series of additional doctor's appointments. He learns that he is terminally ill, but does not tell Scully. (Without)

Fall 1999?

Hunger. In Costa Mesa, CA, a longhaired young man car pulls into a drive through restaurant, Lucky Boy. It is closed but an attendant answers through the speaker and finally agrees to take an order. When the driver, Donald Pankaw, gets to the window, nobody is there. He looks into the window and something grabs him and pulls him into the kitchen.

The rest of the story is told from the perspective of Rob Roberts. Three days after the murder he arrives for work. Mulder and Scully enter the restaurant investigating the murder. Pankaw's car was found ten miles away in a reservoir. A button was found in the car that is issued only to employees of Lucky Boy. The only employee who can't produce his is Derwood Spinks. Sending employees outside, Mulder and Scully search the restaurant. Rob sneaks up to a window and overhears that Pankaw's brain had apparently been eaten through a hole in his skull. Mulder thinks that a "proboscis" was used.

Rob goes home and Mulder soon visits. Rob had stayed late on Friday to throw out some old meat that was spoiling. Mulder checked and the meat was not in the dumpster, even though the garbage had not been collected since Friday. Later, Rob sees a man watching his building from a car while a Lucky Boy employee assistance counselor phones to ask him to a counseling session. Rob takes his teeth out of his mouth, then eats appetite suppressant pills, and watches a video about willpower to stop eating. At night, Rob goes out to the man in the car, bares his teeth and attacks.

Later, Derwood wakes Rob up. Derwood got fired last night. He is an ex-con and the prime suspect in the murder. He found Rob's diet pills when he opened up Sunday - there was a drop of blood on the pill bottle. He wants a payoff to keep quiet. As Rob leaves home later Mulder stops him. He tells Rob that Derwood is the main suspect, but Mulder thinks is someone else who has a compulsion to kill.

Rob goes to the employee assistance counselor, Mindy. His stomach rumbles, but he fights down his appetite. She says murderers are not monsters. Deep down even the worst of us wants to be good. Later, Rob goes to Derwood's and searches for the bottle. Derwood arrives home and finds the place in shambles. He searches his apartment, carrying a baseball bat, and finds Rob. Rob pulls off his hair, pulls off his ears, pulls out his eyes, then he attacks and a proboscis from his mouth shoots out to Derwood's head.

Rob returns to the counselor's office, looking normal again. He has compulsions that he can't put off. She thinks he's talking bulemia and doesn't understand that he kills to feed. She tries to build his self-esteem. He touches his head and an ear falls off. He puts it back on and Mindy doesn't notice. He says he really is trying to do right.

Rob gets home and finds Mulder and Scully waiting for him to talk about Derwood, who is missing. Mulder saw him in Rob's neighborhood yesterday. Mulder thinks he's dead, not missing. Scully found a bit of what seems to be a tiny shark's tooth embedded in the first victim's brain. Mulder says they're looking for a monster with a biological imperative to eat. Rob goes to the Overeaters Anonymous meeting Amy had asked him to attend - his landlord is there and notes that it's a small world. He tells the group about how his cravings for meat have become to powerful to resist. His description enthralls the participants. When they get home, Rob sees the landlord, Sylvia, to her door, then has a stomach rumbling attack. He knocks on her door again, and removes his teeth.

Rob trashes his own apartment to make it look like a killer broke in, when neighbors complain about the noise. He shouts at them to call for police. Rob used a baseball bat from Derwood's house, keeping his fingerprints off it. Rob tells Mulder and Scully that Derwood blackmailed him, indicating that Derwood was the killer. The man in the car was a private eye hired by Sylvia's ex-husband and is now also missing. After the agents leave Mindy drops in and finds Rob packing - he says he's going to a friend's house. She sensed that there were things he wanted to talk about but couldn't. He has quit Lucky Boy. Maybe his biological imperative to eat is natural. He is sick of pretending that he is something he is not. She has the leap of understanding that he killed Pankaw. As she asks him to turn himself in, police drive up. He shows her that he is a monster by removing his hair and ears and displaying his teeth. She is sympathetic. M&S burst in with guns drawn. They found Sylvia's body. Mindy says, "be that good person I know you mean to be." But Rob attacks and Mulder shoots him. As he dies he says he attacked because he can't be something he is not.

November 12, 1999

Rush. In rural Pittsfield, VA, a teenager, Tony, passes no trespassing sign and meets two other teenagers out in the woods. Max seems to just appear out of the dark, and Chastity follows. She is not sure that Tony is cut out for what they are about to do. Max makes Tony swear to never reveal what they find. A police car drives up and Max and Chastity disappear. As the deputy goes to his car to check Tony's license, he is attacked and killed, but Tony doesn't see any attacker.

At hospital, Scully doesn't believe an invisible assailant beat the deputy to death, as Mulder does. A police flashlight was the murder weapon but it looks like the deputy was hit with a sledgehammer. Tony, who is 16 years old, is charged with the murder and doesn't want to talk to the agents. He seems torn over whether to mention Max and Chastity being present, but ends up saying nothing. Mulder thinks that is Tony was guilty he would have made up a better story. Scully agrees, but disagrees with Mulder's idea that it was some kind of invisible spirit.

Chastity is taking a midterm in a high school class. Max walks in having missed all but one minute of the midterm. He takes the test, turns around and turns back with the answer sheet filled in, all correct. As Chastity leaves class, M&S question her. She had visited Tony and thinks he doesn't have it in him to kill a cop. Max, it turns out, is the sheriff's son. He pulls the girl away from talking with Mulder and Scully. The sheriff phones Scully - the flashlight has disappeared from the evidence room. The tape shows nothing. Mulder, however, finds a very brief blur, only on a single frame of the video image.

Tony is released because the murder weapon has disappeared. His mother tries to question him, and feels that Tony has fallen into a bad crowd of kids. After she leaves his room a noise at the window shows that Max is outside. They drive off. Max says the cop had to go - he was snooping around. He drives crazy and the car hits a tree, but Tony finds himself outside the car, unhurt. "I'm going to make you one of us," Max says.

Mulder's friend, Chuck Burke, evaluates the video blur. It is indistinct but turns out to include the school colors, like a school jacket. At school Chastity tells Tony it's a little late for second thoughts. In class, the teacher gives Max an F, although every answer on the test was right. The teacher won't tolerate cheating. Tony asks Chastity how he can tell Max he wants out. She can't help - she says she can't even help herself. In the lunchroom the teacher trips - Max is standing across the room and seems to have caused it somehow. Cuts appear on the teacher's hands and face, then a table moves and slams him violently against a wall. A chair flies across the room and also strikes the teacher, killing him. Mulder and Scully visit lunchroom crime scene. Mulder now suspects Max, who has had increasing discipline problems over the last several months, but whose grades have gotten better. Mulder is wondering if he has gained psychokinetic powers when news arrives that Max has collapsed and was taken to the hospital. Chastity flees to the woods and Tony follows her, entering a cave. As he steps into a circle of light, Tony begins shaking.

In the hospital, Mulder and Scully arrive. The sheriff resists their questioning his son. Max's medical condition leaves him with symptoms of extreme exertion and withdrawal, as if he needs another "fix" of whatever was happening to him. They check test results on Max which evidence of repeated concussions, stress fractures, etc., like someone who has crashed race cars for years. Mulder concludes that Max can move to extreme speed. Meanwhile, Chastity helps Max escape. She tries to stop him, but Max returns to the cave. Tony is there too. "Moving fast is such a rush," he says.

Sheriff looks through Max's room, finding dozens of burned out tennis shoes and missing flashlight. Max comes home and begins to attack his father but Tony appears, and holds the sheriff's gun to Max's head.

Sheriff is brought into the hospital ER. Unconscious and bleeding. The flashlight is found at he scene and the sheriff's gun is missing. Mulder and Scully agree that the woods near where the deputy was killed must be the source of the power. Chastity and Tony are hurrying back the cave - they have to get there before Max does because they are all slowing down. Tony trips and then follows Chastity into the cave. He finds her unconscious, Max having knocked her out. Max is about to attack Tony when Chastity, who has awakened, finds the gun on the cave floor and shoots Max. In very slow motion the bullet explodes from Max's chest and continues across the cave. Chastity tells Tony she cannot go back and steps in front of what to her is a very slowly moving bullet, allowing it to kill her.

In the hospital later, Tony is recovering. Geologists and scientists have found nothing special in the cave. Mulder thinks maybe they are all just too old and that only teenagers with their hormonal complexities are affected. The cave has been pumped full of concrete, sealing it. Tony has bruises and muscle strains and Scully says he can now go back to being a normal kid, but in the last scene he is staring at the clock, as if fascinated. (Date for this episode from date on midterm examination.)

December, 1999??

The Goldberg Variation. In Chicago, Henry Weems is playing cards in a high-stakes poker game with mobsters. Weems wins $100,000 but won't stay to continue playing. As he leaves, henchmen take him to the roof and throw him off, but he lands 300 feet below in a hole, survives and walks off, unsteadily.

Mulder meets Scully on a downtown street in Chicago, coming up out of the pavement in a freight elevator from a basement that extends under the sidewalk. Agents staking out the mobster saw an unidentified man fall from the roof then walk off. Mulder wonders whether this man has some kind of special healing power. Scully thinks he just got lucky. Going down into the basement they find a cart with broken wheels, filled with towels, suggesting the man may have landed in it. In the towels in the cart they find an artificial eye.

Mulder and Scully identify Weems because he was the only person that day to make an appointment to get fitted for a new artificial eye. They visit the apartment where Weems is building superintendent, but in the hall a woman calls them into her apartment for help. She can't find Weems and she needs help turning off a water valve because her sink is leaking. As Mulder turns it, the valve breaks, spraying Mulder with water. Then the floor gives way and he falls into the apartment below, where he finds Weems, who was hiding. Mulder gives him back his glass eye but Weems refuses to testify against mobster Jimmy Cutrona. Weems' hobby is making complex machines, like Rube Goldberg depicted. Scully tells Weems that Cutrona will probably try to kill Weems again. As the agents leave a hood enters. Mulder realizes he lost his car key when he fell through the floor and buzzes Weem's apartment to get back in through the front security door. Mulder and Scully return a few moments later to find Weems gone and the hood hanging dead from a ceiling fan by his shoelaces.

Mulder hypothesizes about the complex series of Rube Goldberg-like events that caused the assassin end up hanging from the ceiling fan. Weems seems to have an unusual amount of luck. Scully talks with a neighbor boy, Richie, who is a friend of Weems. He has one of Weems' Goldberg devices in his room that Weems made for him when Richie was in the hospital for liver disease. He quotes Weems as saying that everything happens for a reason. Weems is hiding in the building and visits the boy after the agents leave.

The agents learn that Weems survived an airplane crash in 1989, which Mulder thinks is where the lucky streak started. Afterward Weems severed his ties with all his friends. Mulder wonders why he has resumed using his luck. Weems goes into a shop to buy a rub-off lottery ticket and wins $100,000. The payment schedule is too long, though, and he throws it away. Another man grabs it, runs outside and is hit by a truck.

Mulder and Scully split up to search the apartment building in more detail. Meanwhile another assassin begins looking for Weems. Mulder picks a lock and enters an apartment where he finds Weems hiding in a heating duct. The assassin sees him through the open door and shoots, but the bullet bounces around the room, including grazing Mulder's arm, and comes back to strike the assassin.

At the emergency room, the injured assassin is wheeled in. Mulder is treated for a flesh wound. He uses cards to test Weems, who always gets the high card. It is a nightmare for him because when you get really lucky other people suffer, which is why he keeps a low profile. He needs the money to help Richie who needs a liver transplant, but Richie has a very rare blood type and can't find a donor. An experimental treatment program needs $100,000 to get in. Mulder believes and doesn't think Weems' life is in danger. Several hoods arrive at the hospital. On the street outside, as he dodges the mobsters, Weems is hit by a truck but survives. Richie suffers an attack and is taken to the same hospital by EMTs. As his Mom, Maggie, gets ready to follow, a mobster kidnaps her.

Weems visits Richie in the hospital and is convinced that Cutrona is responsible for taking Maggie. Richie is gravely ill and needs a transplant in the next few hours. Weems visits Cutrona. He won't testify if Maggie is released. The mobsters take him to the building basement where Maggie is locked up. They suspend Weems from a hoist but his luck holds and the hoods are incapacitated by an unlikely series of events. Mulder and Scully arrive, guns drawn. Cutrona, who is dead, is a perfect match for Richie's blood and Richie gets the transplant from Cutrona's body. Maybe Weems' luck is changing and the people around him don't suffer anymore.

Mid December, 1999

Bank employee Albert Pinchbeck dies of a heart attack. His brother, Herman, finds him and hatches a plan to steal money from Albert's bank. With his protegee, Billy Labange, Herman refrigerate's Albert's body and begins planning the details of his con game plan. (The Amazing Maleeni)

December 29, 1999

Herman Pinchbeck deliberately loses a large sum in a poker game with ex-felon Cissy Alvarez. Herman gives Alvarez his "marker," promising to pay his debt.(The Amazing Maleeni)

December 11-31, 1999

Millennium. At a funeral on December 11, a man, Mr. Johnson, remains after the widow leaves. The body is a man who committed suicide. Johnson opens the casket and exchanges his own shirt for the shirt the body is wearing. Then he places a cell phone in the casket. On December 29, Johnson is parked at a cemetery, waiting. The cell phone rings and he gets out of his vehicle with a shovel.

On December 30, Scully arrives at the cemetery. Mulder is in the grave hole, which is now open. They are investigating because the dead man was "one of their own," an FBI agent. Mulder finds that the lining of the casket is shredded and the dead man's finger prints are on the inside of the casket and on the headstone. It looks like someone was trying to get out but the rain didn't leave much evidence. Scully thinks the evidence is rigged. Around the grave there is a circle of blood. At a later staff meeting in Skinner's office, Mulder says it looks like necromancy, the attempt to summon the dead to divulge ritual knowledge and perform mystic tasks. After the meeting, Skinner shows Mulder and Scully the snake eating it's own tail symbol of the Millennium Group. Mulder and Scully describe the group as composed of former FBI agents who fell out of favor. They were actually an end of times cult. The group disbanded several months ago, but the blood circle around the grave looks like the symbol the group used. Skinner shows the agents information on three other similar grave robbing and desecration incidents in the last six months. He sends Mulder and Scully to investigate the Millennium Group.

They go to a mental institution where Frank Black checked himself in for a 30 day observation. Mulder knows him by reputation - Frank was in the same violent crimes unit as Mulder, before Mulder was assigned to it. The agents tell Frank that they can't find any info about the group, its membership and practices. Frank admits that he knows who the four dead agents were but he declines to help - he's trying to put his life back together. Mulder points out that tomorrow, the 31st, is a significant date for the group which doesn't leave much time.

In rural Maryland, Johnson has a flat tire and a deputy stops to help. The deputy smells something then notices flies in the vehicle. He searches and finds the body, which activates and kills the Deputy. The next day, December 31, at the scene of the deputy's death, Mulder concludes that the Necromancer was there - there is salt, which is heavy magic, on the ground in a protective circle, just large enough for one person to stand inside. Nearby the deputy's body is found with a note inside the mouth and the mouth fastened shut with large staples. The note is a quotation from Revelations about being dead and being reborn.

The agents go back to Frank. Scully understands he is afraid of losing his daughter - he is in a custody battle with the parents of his dead wife. He resists, but Mulder asks for just a little clue. Frank tells them that the Group believed the time of revelations was on us. These four died in order to be returned to life as the Four Horsemen, in order to force the end of times. They believe it must begin at the dawn of the millennium. They sought out the Necromancer who believes he is doing God's work. Frank doesn't tell them who the Necromancer is, but profiles him for them. When the Necromancer realizes the deputy has been found he will take action and return to the body, Frank says. Mulder concludes that catching the four horsemen is more important than finding the Necromancer.

Scully points out that the end of the millennium is actually a year away and this is an artificial deadline. Mulder brushes off the argument, saying "nobody likes a math geek." He thinks the deputy was killed near the Necromancer's home. Mulder asks Scully to make sure that the staples are left in the deputy's mouth. At the morgue, the doctor removes the staples from the deputy's mouth and finds the mouth filled with salt. She removes it. Scully arrives to find the morgue dark. Blood near the phone leads to the injured doctor. Johnson appears and then the Deputy. Scully fires her gun at the deputy's chest but the deputy doesn't stop and attacks her. Later, Skinner arrives. The doctor is being taken away on a stretcher. The deputy's body is on the floor with gunshots to his chest and one to his head. Scully, who is injured, says the deputy attacked her. Johnson fired the shot into the deputy's head and saved her, but Johnson got away, since Scully was in no condition to chase him. Skinner and Scully are now concerned about Mulder, who is not answering his cell phone.

Mulder is checking residences near the scene of the deputy's death, one by one. He is out of cell phone service range. He pulls up at Johnson's. The gate is locked so he checks the trash and finds a mostly empty salt sack. He grabs a handful of salt and puts it in his suit coat pocket. Mulder climbs the gate. Johnson is not home. Mulder enters the basement through a door that had been locked. Bodies under the dirt floor rise up and attack him. Johnson, who has arrived home, seals the door shut as Mulder fires his gun again and again.

Frank still won't help Scully, although she is more and more concerned about Mulder. Frank has spent years trying to unravel the belief of the Group. In spite of her disbelief, Scully asks if the Group can they really bring about the end of times. Frank still won't answer her questions, but after she leaves he checks himself out of the institution. Later, Skinner contacts Scully with phone records showing that Frank has been called repeatedly from a Rice County, Maryland, phone number.

Frank arrives at the home of Johnson who says, "We'd given up on you." It becomes clear that Frank was originally intended to be one of the four horsemen. Johnson says that Mulder has killed one of the four with a shot to the head. Now that Frank is there, he can still hill himself and be brought back to life to be the fourth. Frank didn't want to be involved, but now that he knows Johnson has succeeded with the necromancy, Frank can't remain uninvolved. Johnson says there is no justice in this world but there will be in the next. Frank surprises Johnson by pulling a gun on him and tying him up. Frank then goes to the basement. Mulder is wounded and says that a shot to the head stops them. Mulder is standing inside a ring of salt he made from the salt in his pocket. Frank drops flares and in the light shoots another horseman. As he helps Mulder up from the floor, the third attacks Frank and they struggle. Mulder grabs gun and shoots, saving Frank but the last horseman attacks Frank and the gun is empty. Scully fires from the basement steps, killing the last one.

On New Year's eve, Frank, Mulder and Scully are at the hospital where Mulder's arm is now in a sling. Frank also has some bandages over his wounds. Johnson is under suicide watch. Scully brings Frank's daughter, Jordan, to see him, and Frank says goodbye. It is midnight and Dick Clark is on television as The Millennium Ball drops in Time Square. At midnight, as the crowd on television sings in the year 2000, Mulder and Scully kiss on the lips, slowly. Mulder says, "The world didn't end?" "No, it didn't," answers Scully. They leave the hospital, his arm around her shoulder.